Seven for a Secret (27 page)

Guests at the party were the Hetheringtons and friends in the neighbourhood, including the doctor and his wife, and from Devizes a lawyer who represented the family. Aunt Sophie, of course, was present.

Crispin sat at the head of the table and I was on his right hand. Mrs. St. Aubyn sat at the other end and, although she looked very sad, she was very different from the invalid who had taken most of her meals in her own room. Tamarisk, also, was present. She had changed a great deal; she had lost that careless manner of the past and was no longer the light-hearted girl.

The ghost of Gaston Marchmont seemed to hover over us all, and although a great effort was made not to refer to past events and to be as we all had been before, that was not possible.

The meal was over when Crispin rose and, taking my hand, said simply:

“I have an announcement to make. Frederica Miss Hammond-and I have decided to marry.”

Congratulations ensued, and we drank the champagne which the butler had brought up from the cellars.

I could have been very happy but for that hovering ghost. I wondered if it would ever leave us in peace.

Later in the drawing-room I found Tamarisk beside me.

“I did not need the formal announcement,” she said.

“I knew, of course, what was in the air.”

“Was it so obvious?”

“Quite. Particularly since you went to the office. He arranged that, of course.”

“It was good of him.”

“Good! He was thinking of himself,” she said.

“Tamarisk, how are you?”

“I don’t know. Sometimes I’m miserable. Sometimes I’m ashamed. Then I’m afraid. Then I’m glad glad that he’s gone and yet in a way he is still here. He always will be until they find out who killed him. I wish oh, how 1 wish I had never seen him.”

1 put my hand over hers.

“We’re like sisters in a way,” she said.

“That’s something I find cheering.”

“I’m glad.”

“Rachel, you and I. The three of us. We were always together, weren’t we? It seems that you have done better than any of us. You and Crispin. Who would have believed Crispin would be in love, and with you?”

“Rachel has a very happy marriage.”

“Poor Rachel.”

“She’s all right. She’s happy now. But, Tamarisk, what about you?”

“I shall be all right too when this is all over. If only it had been someone we didn’t know who had killed him so that we could forget.

They will be hovering till they find out. The police, I mean. They don’t just forget it after an inquest. “

“We have to go on as if it hadn’t happened.”

“Some people think I did it. They always will. You see what I meant about its being there always.”

“It won’t be. There’ll be an answer.”

“But what if the answer is something we don’t want it to be?”

“What do you mean?”

“You know what I mean. We’re going to try to be happy. Or pretend we are. Perhaps we might even succeed for a time. And then it will be there. It will pop up, Fred. They’ve got to find out who did it. It will never be finished until they do.”

Aunt Sophie was coming over to us. She was smiling brightly. She was very pleased, but behind her smiles I could detect a certain anxiety.

2. 2. Oh yes indeed, the ghost of Gaston Marchmont was with us on that night.

It amazed me to realize the interest there was in our proposed marriage; and I did not only mean among the inhabitants of Harper’s Green. That, of course, I fully expected.

It was a few days after the dinner-party. When I went down to breakfast Aunt Sophie was already seated at the table. She was reading the morning newspaper and when she greeted me I detected the dismay in her face immediately.

“Good morning. Aunt Sophie.” I went to her and kissed her.

“Anything wrong?”

She shrugged her shoulders.

“I suppose it’s nothing, really.”

“You look upset.”

“It’s just this.”

She pushed the newspaper over to me as I sat down beside her. There was a picture of Crispin on the front page.

“What is this?” I cried.

“They must have taken it some time during the investig gations. The Press is usually lurking somewhere. That’s! Inspector Burrows with him. The one who was here, remember?”

I read: To marry. The engagement is announced of Mr. Crispin St. Aubyn to Miss frederica Hammond who has been a neighbour of his for some years. Mr. St. Aubyn is the Wiltshire landowner on whose estate the body of Gaston Marchmont was recently found. The gun from which the fatal shot was fired was taken from the St. Aubyn’s gunroom. This will be Mr. St. Aubyn’s second marriage. His first wife was Kate Carvel, the actress, who was killed in a railway accident soon after the wedding.

Aunt Sophie was watching me. Why do they want to bring all this up?

”

“I suppose they think people want to read it,” said Aunt

Sophie.

“But that first marriage …”

“Oh, 1 suppose it adds a further touch of drama.”

“Why should people want to hear all that?”

“The case was publicized nationally, of course.” Yes, I thought, this paper was not the local one. It would be circulated all over the country. I thought of the thousands who would be reading that item.

It will be forgotten in time, I told myself. But there would always be some to remember. There really was no escape.

Crispin himself was not very disturbed by the newspaper notice.

He said: “Until this thing is settled they will keep their eyes on us.

We have to forget it. Let’s think about pleasant things. I don’t see any reason for delay. Let’s make it soon. My mother is already making plans. She says it must be a wedding in the St. Aubyn’s tradition. I mustn’t forget that I’m the head of the family and all that.

Personally, I’d go for the quickest way. I just want to be with you to make sure we are together . always. “

“I want that too,” I said.

“But I suppose the wedding is going to attract more attention from the Press.”

“I’m afraid we shall have to accept that.”

“Perhaps we should wait a little … not too long. But in case there is some development.”

He looked aghast.

“Some discovery,” I went on.

“Some revelation.”

“Oh no!” he cried vehemently. He was frowning deeply, and I put my arms round him and held him close to me. He clung, almost as though he were asking for protection.

“Never leave me. Do not talk of delays.”

I was deeply touched. I felt as though I were trying to zz3

reach out to him and could not quite do so. I was deeply aware of some barrier between us, and I said: “Crispin, there is something ..”

“What do you mean?” Did I fancy I detected a note of fear in his voice?

“There should not be any secrets between us,” I said on impulse.

He drew back. He was himself again the man in command of any situation.

“What do you mean, Frederica?” he repeated.

“I just thought that there might be something important that I did not know.”

He laughed and kissed me.

“This is the important matter … the most important matter in the world to me. When are we going to get married?”

“We should talk to your mother and Aunt Sophie.”

“I think Aunt Sophie will be amenable.”

“She will go along with anything we decide, of course, but she did say that in view of… everything… we should not have the grand ceremony your mother wants. It is too soon after that trouble.”

He was silent.

“She is right,” I persisted.

“Your brother-in-law is dead. It’s a death in the family. It is usual to wait a year after that.”

“Impossible! It was no great bereavement.”

“It was murder. I think we should offend a lot of sensibilities if we celebrated what should be a joyous occasion too soon after that. What construction would people put upon it?”

“Do we care?”

“I think we have to remember it is a delicate situation. Crispin, we have to remember that until the case is solved some may be thinking all sorts of things about people.”

He was thoughtful.

“You don’t mean you think we should wait a year?”

“Not as long as that, no. But shouldn’t we see how things go?”

“I long to get away,” he said.

“Darling, where shall we go?”

“Anywhere will do.”

“Away from this place … all the speculations … all the memories of it. I want to think of us and nothing else.”

“It sounds blissful.”

Again I had that idea that he was trying to reach out to me, to tell me what was on his mind. A terrible fear came to me and it would not go away. What part had he played in this murder? I kept asking myself.

Why did he not tell me what was on his mind? Could it be that he dared not?

I thought how happy I could be if we could be together and there was nothing between us and our happiness, if I could think of the future with hope and confidence. But I could not rid myself of images of that body in the shrubbery and the gun which had been taken from the gunroom at St. Aubyn’s.

Crispin continued to talk of our honeymoon. Italy was always a favourite place. Was it not one of the most beautiful countries in the world? So much of the past still survived there. Florence, Venice, Rome. Austria was inviting. We could go to Salzburg, Mozart’s birthplace. France? The chateaux of the Loire. He had always wanted to see Chateau Gaillard with its memories of Richard Cceurde-Lion.

But while we discussed them all I could not stop thinking: There is something. He cannot entirely hide it. I can see it in his eyes.

Why will he not tell me? I can’t ask him because he does not admit to its being there. But, knowing him, loving him, 1 am aware of it.

Lily was proud of me.

The big house, eh? Mistress of all that! My word, you’ll be too grand to come and see us at The Rowans. “

25

We laughed at her.

“You don’t think that. Lily, you know very well,” 1 retorted.

“Well, of course not. You’ll always be our little Miss Freddie, won’t she. Miss Sophie?”

“Yes, she will. When we are doddering old ladies and she herself a mature matron, she will always be our little Miss Freddie.”

Aunt Sophie often talked about the past.

“I remember Crispin as a boy,” she said.

“A nice lad. And the way he looks after those Lanes … that’s a credit to him. I used to see him now and then. His parents were hardly ever here. They were always gadding up to London or the Continent, letting the place go to rack and ruin. It was a mercy they had a good manager. And when Crispin took over, that was the best thing that could have happened to the place. That was when he was married. That brought him out of the university and got him into the estate. It was time, too. It’s a funny thing, but there is always good in something. That marriage of his brought him home and the estate has prospered ever since.”

“You must have seen his wife often.”

“Oh yes, I saw her. My goodness, what a shock it was! Disaster from the start. I just wondered how he could have done it. Folly of youth, I suppose. She seemed a lot older than he was … more than she’d admit to, I reckon.”

“Was she very beautiful?”

“Not to my mind. All rouge and powder and hair too gold to be natural.

As soon as I set eyes on her I knew it wouldn’t last long. “

“I want to know about it, Aunt Sophie.”

“You’ve nothing to fear from her, my dear. Sometimes in these second marriages the second wife gets fancies about the first. Thinks the husband is hankering after the past. That’s something you’ll be spared. He was glad to be rid of her. Everyone knows that.”

“What was it like at St. Aubyn’s when she was there?”

“She wanted parties and that sort of thing.”

“Like Crispin’s parents.”

“They were abroad most of the time and it wasn’t like that with her at all. The parents’ kind were elegant affairs. These were noisy, rowdy.

Lots of musical-hall people, I think. People in the neighbourhood didn’t like it much. There was quarrelling too. Poor Crispin. He soon saw what he’d let himself in for. Then she got bored with it all and went off. Soon after that there was the crash and she was killed.

Happy release, people said, for Crispin. “

“I think all that had a great effect on him.”

“Bound to. He seemed to shut himself away. Thought of nothing but the estate. One or two people had their eyes on him.”

“You mean like Lady Fiona?”

“Perhaps. There were others. He didn’t seem to want any of them. Not until he fell in love with you. Oh, Freddie, I believe everything is going to be wonderful for you. He’s changed a lot. He’s losing that haunted look. That proud sort of arrogance. It’s a defiance against fate. He seemed to have come to the conclusion that he was a fool to have got caught as he did. He despised himself and all that self-assurance was a shield to hide behind.”

“Yes,” I said.

“I am sure you are right, but I think there is something between us, though something which prevents my getting as close to him as I should like.”

“That’s it, dear. It will take some time for him to break completely from the past. But he’s on the way and 1 am so happy about this. I am sure it’s right for you and your happiness is more important to me than anything.”

“Dearest Aunt Sophie, I don’t know how to begin to thank you for all you have done for me. Ever since 1 came to you here you have been wonderful to me.”

1 saw the brightness of tears glistening in her eyes.

“Dearest child, you are my own niece and …”

7

“And my father’s daughter? Tell me, have you written to him?”

“I have told him of your engagement.”

“Will he be interested? After all, he doesn’t know anything about Crispin. He doesn’t really know me.”

“He knows you well from my letters. He is always anxious to know about you. He has now gone right away to an island on the other side of the world.”

“I thought he was in Egypt.”

“He left some time ago. It’s a remote sort of place called Casker’s Island. It seems to have been discovered by a man called Casker some years ago. Few people have ever heard of it. I searched the map in vain. But I did find it in one atlas. Just a little black dot on the sea. I suppose it is too insignificant to be mentioned in most.”